Monday, January 15, 2007

avalanche

You know those annoying emails people forward to every human being in their address list, assuming they all share the same political and/or religious beliefs as the person sending the email? I know you do, because I’m guilty of doing it too. Though, I do at least try to only preach to the choir...I don’t send out a bunch of rantings and ravings about Dubya to my Republican friends and relatives. Anyway, when you do send something out willy-nilly, with no regard for the principles and opinions of folks on the receiving end, you’re gonna wind up offending somebody. Today, I am that somebody, as what follows may very well be the most offensive forwarded message I’ve ever received...

NOTE: They have received more snow since this email was sent out.

I Salute the People of the Colorado Republic!

THINK ABOUT THIS FOR A MOMENT.

Denver Post:

This text is from a county emergency manager out in the central part of Colorado after today's snowstorm.

WEATHER BULLETIN

Up here, in the Northern Plains, we just recovered from a Historic event--- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.

No Larry King, No Bill O'Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.

No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.

Nope, we just melted the snow for water.

Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.

The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny.

Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families.

Families took in the stranded people – total strangers.

We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.

We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".

We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks.

Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate."

It does seem that way, at least to me.

I hope this gets passed on.

Maybe SOME people will get the message. The world does Not owe you a living.

I’m still dumbfounded by the fact that somebody sat down to compose this. It’s obviously bullshit, with “urban legend” written all over it (what the Denver Post has to do with anything is beyond me). But, authenticity aside, it almost literally hurts me to see how hateful, bigoted and ugly this message is...and the thoughts behind it must be. It actually ties in a little bit to a post I’m going to...um, post shortly. To bend so far over backward to somehow connect a snowstorm with Hurricane Katrina...it’s just such a mean-spirited, aggressive, nasty way to express your beliefs while kicking someone less powerful than you. I can feel the disgusted expression I have on my face right now.

Feel free to comment...or not. And I probably don’t help matters by posting this (I’m a firm believer in ignoring hate speech and hate groups because I think indifference wounds them more deeply than anything). I just can’t get past my one-word question when I read this: Why...?